The gray wolf's long-term survival is at stake. It has barely begun to recover from being endangered, and is still absent from significant portions of its former range, where substantial suitable habitat remains. A growing body of scientific literature shows that top predators, like the wolf, play critical roles in maintaining a diversity of other wildlife species.

Read more below, and in letter from 16 of the nation's top scientists, sent May 21, 2013 to Sally Jewell, Secretary, Department of the Interior.

Source: Population estimates from state wildlife agencies

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MYTH: Wolves kill lots of cattle, lead to lower birth rates, and are causing cattle ranchers to go out of business.

FACT: Wolves are responsible for less than two tenths of a percent (.2%) of cattle depredations. 94% of losses are due to non-predator related causes, such as respiratory disease, digestive problems, weather, calving problems, etc.

To be specific, according to the USDA there were 3,992,900 cattle deaths reported in 2010. A whopping 3,773,000 were not due to predators at all. In fact, only 219,900 were due to predators. Of those losses attributed to predators, wolves came in at second to last at 8,100. Furthermore, these losses are "self-reported" by ranchers, and most studies show that ranchers typically attribute any unknown causes to "predators," which increases the number of "losses."

Of special note, even dogs, which are listed as cattle predators, killed almost three times as many cows as wolves did, at 21,800.

Source: “Cattle Death Loss,” a report by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (see chart on pg. 5)

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MYTH: The elk population has been declining, due to wolf depredation.

FACT: The numbers show the OPPOSITE is happening. In Wyoming and Montana there are more elk now than before reintroduction.

In Wyoming, elk are 29 percent above management objectives and Wyoming Fish and Game says they are actually “managing elk to reduce their numbers”! In Montana, elk populations have increased by approximately 60 percent since wolf reintroduction. Idaho elk are at or above management objectives in 80 percent of the state elk hunting units.

Source: “The Perverse Logic of Wolf Hunts”

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MYTH: Gray wolves in the Yellowstone region are "non-native imports" dumped into the area.

FACT: Northern Rocky Mountain wolves, a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), were native to Yellowstone when the park was established in 1872.

The Park Service recorded killing 136 gray wolves in Yellowstone between 1914-1926. There were most certainly many more killed prior to that; they just weren't keeping records. By the 1940s, wolf packs were rarely reported, and by the 1970s scientists found no evidence of a wolf population. The species of gray wolf imported from Canada and reintroduced into Yellowstone in 1995 is the same wolf species that originally inhabited the Park.

Source: The National Park Service

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MYTH: Wolves are not endangered and should not receive endangered species protection.

FACT: Wolf management in America has swung full circle in 50 years from extermination to recovery, and now back again towards extinction. Never in the history of the Endangered Species Act has a species been delisted because of politics, but that is what happened when wolves were delisted on the federal level in April 2011, and management was left to the states.

This established a dangerous precedent. State managers opened hunting seasons on wolves who had just managed to gain a toe-hold and reoccupy territory from which they were extirpated by ranching and agricultural interests just a few decades ago. Ranching and hunting interests historically dominate state commissions and legislatures, so the playing field is not level. It is therefore no surprise that state wildlife management decisions are based on political special interests, as opposed to science.

Wolves are highly social animals and their health, as well as the balance of the ecosystem, depends on their pack structure. As a result of their delisting, free roaming packs of wolves in America will be lucky to survive, much less thrive, anywhere outside of the national parks, where they are protected. Hunters and trappers are gaining access to those wolves as well, by lying in wait for them when they cross the park boundaries, as has happened in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

Read more about wolves' endangered status in letter from 16 of the nation's top scientists, sent May 21, 2013 to Sally Jewell, Secretary, Department of the Interior.

Learn more in our film, “The Imperiled American Wolf”

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MYTH: Wolves should just live in parks like Yellowstone (or in Canada).

FACT: Not only is this unhealthy for the predator/prey balance in the states which have wolf populations, but wolves have never recognized the boundary line between Canada and the U.S. Nor, of course, do they recognize the boundary line between Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding states. Wolves that leave Yellowstone have been shot by hunters as soon as they step across the border. See New York Times article.

Learn more about predator/prey balance in The Importance of Predators.

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MYTH: There are plenty of wolves in Canada and Alaska. If we have problems here, we can just import some from there.

FACT: That is not in the least bit desirable. Wolves are highly social animals. Family structure is vital to their health and well-being. It would be ill-advised to disrupt the social structure of wolves in those locations.

Learn more in our film. “The Imperiled American Wolf”

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MYTH: Wolves are simply a problem. They need to be removed from the ecosystem.

FACT: Our ecosystems are out of balance when it comes to predator and prey. Predators are essential to restoring balance and ensure proper ecosystem processes and function. As a major predator, wolves have shaped prey populations for thousands of years.

Wolf predation is strategic; it differs from how humans hunt. Wolves primarily take the young and old, rather than the largest and healthiest animals. Wolf predation also helps to balance prey numbers with available habitat, ensuring that plant communities get periodic rest from heavy browsing or grazing influences of herbivores. Wolves can also affect habitat use—for instance, in Yellowstone there is evidence that wolf presence has shifted elk use from valley bottom streamside areas to uplands, which has benefited vegetation important to many wildlife species.

Finally, the presence of wolves can also affect the population and distribution of other smaller predators like coyotes, foxes and skunks. Changes in the population and distribution of these species can have cascading effects on other species from ground-nesting birds to small mammals.

Read more about The Importance of Predators and watch our film, “The Imperiled American Wolf”

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MYTH: Wolves are a deadly menace to humans.

FACT: There have been only two incidents where wolves have killed humans in North America in the past 100 years, once in 2005 and once in 2010. This is an extremely rare rate of occurrence.

Wolves have a natural fear of people that is only eroded when they learn to associate humans and human settlement with opportunities to find food. Importantly, both of these fatalities took place near illegal garbage dumps that attract a host of scavenging carnivores other than wolves, including bears and coyotes. Also, in both cases, there is controversy as to whether or not wolves were the perpetrators.

To put these two wolf killings in 100 years in context, consider that domestic dogs kill 20 to 30 people in the U.S. every year. And an average of two hunting fatalities occur each year in the state of Oregon alone (see ODFW fatalities report). And every year hunters in the U.S. and Canada kill nearly 100 people and injure around 1,000 (more).

Source: Living with Wolves, Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Hunting Incidents, and International Hunter Education Association reports

WASHINGTON— In a move questioned by some of the world’s leading wolf researchers, the Obama administration announced plans today to prematurely strip Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves across most of the lower 48 states, abruptly ending one of America’s most important species recovery programs. The proposal concludes that wolf protection in the continental United States, in place since 1978, is no longer needed, even though there are fledgling populations in places like the Pacific Northwest whose survival hinges on continued federal protection.

“This is like kicking a patient out of the hospital when they’re still attached to life support,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Wolves cling to a sliver of their historic habitat in the lower 48, and now the Obama administration wants to arbitrarily declare victory and move on. They need to finish the job that Americans expect, not walk away the first chance they get. This proposal is a national disgrace. Our wildlife deserve better.”

Wolves today occupy just 5 percent of their historic habitat in the continental United States. Today’s proposal means that wolves will never fully reoccupy prime wolf habitat in the southern Rocky Mountains, California and Northeast, and will hinder ongoing recovery in the Pacific Northwest.

The proposal will hand wolf management over to state wildlife agencies across most of the country – a step that has meant widespread killing in recent years. Following removal of protections for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes in 2011, states in those regions quickly enacted aggressive hunting and trapping seasons designed to drastically reduce wolf populations. In the northern Rocky Mountains more than 1,100 wolves have been killed since protections were removed; this year populations declined by 7 percent.

“By locking wolves out of prime habitat across most this country, this proposal perpetuates the global phenomena of eliminating predators that play hugely important roles in ecosystems,” said Greenwald. “Wolves are well documented to benefit a host of other wildlife from beavers and fish, to songbirds and pronghorn.”

In response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, today’s proposal maintains protections for the Mexican gray wolf as a separate subspecies. Only 75 Mexican wolves roam a recovery area restricted to portions of Arizona and New Mexico. The population has not grown as expected because of a combination of illegal poaching and government mismanagement that requires wolves to be removed from the wild or killed when they leave the recovery area or depredate livestock.

“It’s obvious that Mexican gray wolves continue to need protection and we’re glad they’re getting it,” said Greenwald. “But it is equally obvious that wolves in the Pacific Northwest, southern Rockies, California and Northeast also need continued protection.”

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 500,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

The U.S. government once sponsored the wholesale eradication of wolves by any means, be it poisoning, trapping or shooting. It was only right, then, that the U.S. government step up to restore the animals they once helped drive to extinction.

Now, that work is done. With more than 6,000 wolves at last count, the species is no longer in danger of extinction in the Lower 48. Federal protections have been removed in a handful of states already, with full delisting on the horizon.

Draft plans to fully delist gray wolves in the Lower 48 were first discussed back in April. On Thursday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its proposed rule in the Federal Register, thus opening the 90-day public comment period.

If the rule is accepted, individual states will assume full responsibility for managing their wolf populations, much as Montana has already done. One particular subspecies of gray wolves in the Southwest will be the lone exception. This group of about 75 Mexican wolves would still be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

However, several large conservation organizations have met the planned end of protections with dismay. Some wildlife advocates are worried that full delisting could lead to widespread extermination. They also see the end of federal protections as the end of any attempts to establish new gray wolf populations in new areas.

WORRIES PERSIST

These worries persist despite the precedent set in Montana. In 2011, protections for Montana’s wolf populations were lifted. Now, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is largely free to manage wolves, and they haven’t been eradicated — nor have all the elk or domestic animals that wolves sometimes prey on.

No, instead wolf populations in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes regions are healthy and appear to be expanding without human encouragement. In two states, Washington and Oregon, newly established and still-small wolf packs are growing under the protection of state law, rather than federal oversight.

Montana FWP continues to make adjustments to the state’s wolf management plan here. This is as it should be. Although this editorial board does not agree with every aspect of the state’s plans, we acknowledge that those plans are designed to be as responsive as possible to widely diverse needs. The concerns of ranchers, hunters, conservationists and others are all being taken into account.

And should the states fail in their mission, Endangered Species Act protections can be applied again.

FULLY RECOVERED

But no species should be need permanent protection – especially not when all evidence proves they have fully recovered. In the decade preceding partial delisting, gray wolf recovery efforts cost the U.S. government some $102 million. That, in addition to the $15.6 million provided by the states. The federal government’s time, money and attention is better spent on protecting those species on the brink of extinction.

The 90-day public comment period on the proposed rule will end on Sept. 11. Speak up, and lend your support to fully delisting gray wolves.

— The Missoulian

INFORMATION AND NEWS ABOUT DELISTING WOLVES FROM THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT:

This is the search engine result from an organization that has sponsored many wolf support petitions. It is included so that you all can see JUST HOW LONG this conflict and slaughter has been raging on.

GALE NORTON was the Secretary of the Department of the Interior for one of these actions.

as humans, we are charged with protecting the voiceless. wolf is a beloved member of our culture. do not delist her. she will fade into oblivion, leaving only the stuff myths and legends are made from if we fail to protect and defend her existence. we cannot and will not expect to carry on without wildlife who once populated the earth if, one by one, their species are picked off, eliminated and treated like they are disposable commodities.

The fact that these beautiful babies are once again on the hunters menu is terrifying. People that hunt do not just want to hunt, they want to eradicate the beautiful species of wolves, they would rather kill them in inhumane ways than preferably just shooting them. I do not condone wolf hunting but i do realize there is a natural order to the food chain but like i said some hunters go to sick extremes and torture and want to exterminate these angels, and i personally am disgusted i even have to write this letter because people cannot OR will not pull their heads out of their asses, and its good that some people have, such as myself and all these other folks.

Please put them back on the Endangered List! Without the wolf, elk herds will grow larger and larger, which will result in over grazing, which will result in starvation and slow, painful deaths. Please leave the wolves alone; they don't deserved this inhumane treatment for a man-made problem!

We must protect and preserve these beautiful animals! They are part of this world, just like we are. There are far many more humans in this world then wolves and were not slaughtering them.... we are no better then wolves!! This must stop...keep OUR wolves listed!!!